Is truing up an action the same as blueprinting? I'm not opposed to buying a smaller lathe, as I've got a pile of actions I'd like to do. I figure if I could do it my self the price of the tools would soon be paid for.

I got a lathe and all the stuff and I am not sure it's worth it..... 300 for an action and even after spending countless hours indicating and cutting you MIGHT get $500 for it in resale value. If you spend the 800 on a custom you will get 90% back in trade. It boils down to the definition of blueprinting and most people won't spend the money on it second hand. make any sense? It can be fun but it can also be tedious. If you spend 1500 on a little lathe and tooling and then screw up 2 of your first 10 actions....... you could of bought a bunch of custom stuff by then. If your looking for a learning adventure then it's worth it.

Go to brownells.com, and look for Remington reciever blueprinting tooling by Dave Manson. With this setup, you can ream the bolt raceway, recut the tenon threads, and square the reciever face. All without using a lathe. Now I can't personally say how good this set-up is, but over on benchrest.com, some of those smiths swear by it.